4 ms·

Sure, but a good manager is the one who's sneaky on your behalf. Telling stakeholders a longer timeline than necessary, boosting your accomplishments so you get

Sure, but a good manager is the one who's sneaky on your behalf. Telling stakeholders a longer timeline than necessary, boosting your accomplishments so you get a raise, taking the bullet from execs, those are all kinda sneaky but I sure as hell respected the managers who did that for stuff for me. The manager you don't want throws you under the bus, over promises and demands crunch, takes the credit for your work. Equally sneaky, but selfish.

PopeDotNinja 7y ago
If you ever have a manager who jokes about being a horrible manner with some weird sense of pride during an interview, don't take the job. I learned the hard way.
- purple_ducks 7y ago
  I went against my gut feeling and took a job at a <1 yr company(new startup/spinout backed by $$$$ org) because i'd get exposure to certain tech. Manager was (& is) a nice person but didn't instill confidence when talking about how things were planning to be. I left that job 2 years ago after ~8 months. Mentally fucked me up and it took a long time to recover from the ineptitude and incompetence in that company. I looked at their glassdoor reviews and the same complaint and comments me & co-workers made when we left 2 years ago are still repeating with people who are joining and leaving today. Never again going against my gut feeling.
  - PopeDotNinja 7y ago
    I hear ya, and I hope you're doing better now. Working for don't-wannabe manager was not a pleasant experience for me. It took me a good couple months to decompress after that.
Ancalagon 7y ago
Honest question, which of the two kinds of managers are the ones that get promoted more often?
- golergka 7y ago
  Depends on the health of the organization.
Hokusai 7y ago
> Telling stakeholders a longer timeline than necessary I understand what you mean, but this only creates a escalation problem. Everybody has to lie to get anything done. So, it is impossible to know if the decisions taken in the company are reasonable or not. I guess that this behavior makes sense if everybody up the ladder are themselves lying. > taking the bullet from execs I guess that this is part of the same type of company. Where execs punish mistakes, like if mistakes were not part of your job. I have seen such companies driven by fear and the irony of it is that everybody is unhappy and mistakes are repeated again and again as the goal is just o hide them not to learn from it. > The manager you don't want throws you under the bus, over promises and demands crunch, takes the credit for your work. Equally sneaky, but selfish. I guess that this is the manager that ends being promoted to be an exec and creates a new cycle of unreason, pain and lack of productivity.
- magashna 7y ago
  Most companies are not that perfect unicorn. I worked at a Berkshire Hathaway company and was constantly going to war with upper management over bullshit. My direct manager was a saint, and while the company was doing well, I can't deny it seemed everyone hated it there. I'm happy at a much smaller company.
- Terr_ 7y ago
  > escalation Old but relevant: https://www.dilbert.com/strip/1995-01-22 https://www.dilbert.com/strip/1995-01-22

PopeDotNinja 7y ago

If you ever have a manager who jokes about being a horrible manner with some weird sense of pride during an interview, don't take the job. I learned the hard way.

purple_ducks 7y ago
I went against my gut feeling and took a job at a <1 yr company(new startup/spinout backed by $$$$ org) because i'd get exposure to certain tech. Manager was (& is) a nice person but didn't instill confidence when talking about how things were planning to be. I left that job 2 years ago after ~8 months. Mentally fucked me up and it took a long time to recover from the ineptitude and incompetence in that company. I looked at their glassdoor reviews and the same complaint and comments me & co-workers made when we left 2 years ago are still repeating with people who are joining and leaving today. Never again going against my gut feeling.
- PopeDotNinja 7y ago
  I hear ya, and I hope you're doing better now. Working for don't-wannabe manager was not a pleasant experience for me. It took me a good couple months to decompress after that.

Ancalagon 7y ago

Honest question, which of the two kinds of managers are the ones that get promoted more often?

golergka 7y ago
Depends on the health of the organization.

Hokusai 7y ago

> Telling stakeholders a longer timeline than necessary I understand what you mean, but this only creates a escalation problem. Everybody has to lie to get anything done. So, it is impossible to know if the decisions taken in the company are reasonable or not. I guess that this behavior makes sense if everybody up the ladder are themselves lying. > taking the bullet from execs I guess that this is part of the same type of company. Where execs punish mistakes, like if mistakes were not part of your job. I have seen such companies driven by fear and the irony of it is that everybody is unhappy and mistakes are repeated again and again as the goal is just o hide them not to learn from it. > The manager you don't want throws you under the bus, over promises and demands crunch, takes the credit for your work. Equally sneaky, but selfish. I guess that this is the manager that ends being promoted to be an exec and creates a new cycle of unreason, pain and lack of productivity.

magashna 7y ago
Most companies are not that perfect unicorn. I worked at a Berkshire Hathaway company and was constantly going to war with upper management over bullshit. My direct manager was a saint, and while the company was doing well, I can't deny it seemed everyone hated it there. I'm happy at a much smaller company.
Terr_ 7y ago
> escalation Old but relevant: https://www.dilbert.com/strip/1995-01-22 https://www.dilbert.com/strip/1995-01-22